Sunday, January 24, 2010

A big thank you to everyone who's bought my patterns since I pledged to donate to Haiti relief -- already I've been able to donate more than I otherwise would have, thanks to you, and I will continue to do so until 2/14. If you're still looking to help, please do check out the "Help for Haiti" pattern sales on Ravelry. Knitters have been making a big difference: Yarn Harlot reports that her readers have donated an astounding amount so far!

Meanwhile, some knitting pictures.

The Stor Lysedug is making good progress, but unfortunately it's impossible to photograph in any way that doesn't look like a giant gray blob.

Having never knit a giant doily with aran-weight yarn, I have found this quite a pleasing project so far. It's a pretty quick knit, despite the fact that as I near the end the rounds are taking longer and longer to finish. I'm not sure how big this will be by the time I finish. I was hoping for something like 6' in diameter, but I think it will more likely be 5' -- still big enough for a lap blanket, but just barely.

I am usually a fan of knitting from charts, but that's kind of impossible to do with a circular pattern like this, and there's something cool about the element of surprise in reading written-out directions. This pattern uses all k2tog's and directional double decreases; I've been knitting it as written, but I'd like to try it again with ssk's for symmetry and symmetrical double decreases.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a new pattern, for a friend's baby boy to be born soon. There was a request for elephants:

Sunday, January 17, 2010

On Ravelry, lots of pattern designers have pledged to donate a percentage of their pattern sales to Haitian relief efforts of their choice. I'm joining the effort: I'll donate 50% of proceeds from my pattern sales from now until 2/14 to the American Red Cross for their Haitian relief efforts.

Ravelry now includes a "Help for Haiti" tag search that lets you see all the designers who are donating to Haiti relief -- there are tons of great patterns on there, and some designers report being able to donate pretty large amounts of money after just a day of listing their Help for Haiti patterns. So if you were thinking of buying a pattern but were waiting, or felt like it was too decadent to buy a pattern, now you can buy all the stuff you've been waiting around on, while feeling good about helping out in the process!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Because the new place has less closet space and I am using some of my furniture differently, I've been experiencing a bit of a storage crunch. Combine that with the fact that my mom shouted, "Stop the insanity!" as we were unpacking my yarn stash at the new place, and it seemed like a good time for a little destashing. SO! Here's your opportunity to help me out: anyone want any of this stuff? Write me at the e-mail address listed in the sidebar and let me know if you'd like to buy any of the following (paypal only, please; prices include US shipping; international shipping would be extra):

3 skeins hand-dyed laceweight silk (originally from School Products). Can't remember the yardage on this; one skein is untouched and two have been wound into balls. This was definitely enough to make a lace shawl, which was the reason I bought it in the first place. It is quite thin. $12. SOLD.

Two skeins each of Knitpicks Imagination hand-dyed alpaca/merino blend in "Wicked Stepmother" (purple blend on left) and "Frog Prince" (the green blend on bottom right). Fingering weight 50% superwash merino, 25% superfine alpaca, 25% nylon, 219 yards/skein for a total of +400 yards in each color. One skein of each has been balled but has not been knit. $8 each color or $15 for both colors. WICKED STEPMOTHER SOLD.

1 skein Cascade Heritage sock yarn in tan (5610). Fingering weight 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon, 437 yards/skein. This has been balled, and about 75 yards of it have been knit and frogged. $10.

12 skeins Jo Sharp Classic DK wool in forest green ("venice"). DK weight 100% wool, 107 yards/skein for a total of +1200 yards. I knit one small swatch with it, so one skein is slightly smaller than the others. $40.

And one hand-knit for sale (this one I am sad to part with, but I don't have a baby to give it to, and it's depressing to have beautiful baby sweaters sitting around one's apartment, not to mention the fact that it seems like it will jinx one's ability ever to produce such babies on one's own):

And, so that this post is not entirely capitalist whoredom, here's a shot of my most recent knitting project: a blanket-sized doily knit with aran-weight Reynolds Candide on size 9 needles. The pattern I'm using is "Stor Lysedug" from Yarn Over free patterns. I decided I needed a TV-watching afghan because my living room is cold, and it's fun to knit a big beautiful lace thing with big yarn. This has been so much fun that I might take a crack at a Hemlock Ring next, perhaps in softer, slightly lighter wool, for a friend's baby (one that really does exist).